Rush Fees: do you charge them?

[TSC1985]

I am wondering what everyone's philosophy is when/if they charge rush fees? If so do you have a set % up charge (25,50 100) and how quickly does someone need a turn around if in a rush?

Seems like even in these days that we're getting A LOT of requests for rush; less than 48 hours turn time (which is great IMO). I have one particular client that is always dropping stuff on us to be completed "10 minutes ago" and these are never small jobs, 10-15 man hours, so they require almost my whole crew to work late or weekends. I always charge at least a good % over and they never complain but for the smaller crowd they are very picky over even a $25-$100 rush fee.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I am wondering what everyone's philosophy is when/if they charge rush fees? If so do you have a set % up charge (25,50 100) and how quickly does someone need a turn around if in a rush?

Seems like even in these days that we're getting A LOT of requests for rush; less than 48 hours turn time (which is great IMO). I have one particular client that is always dropping stuff on us to be completed "10 minutes ago" and these are never small jobs, 10-15 man hours, so they require almost my whole crew to work late or weekends. I always charge at least a good % over and they never complain but for the smaller crowd they are very picky over even a $25-$100 rush fee.

25% doesn't sounds unreasonable.

 

[SightLine]

We do..... One thing I tell clients quite a bit, and it gets a chuckle every time..... We can do it as fast as you can afford. For the right price we will stay overnight. We have been taken up on it too. They just need to realize they are not your only client.

 

[Pewter0000]

We tend to play it by ear, honestly. We've certainly shot ourselves in the foot by doing a really fast turnaround for a client on a slow day, only for them to come back expecting similar timelines when we're busier. Oops.
We don't have a set percentage, but I agree - these rush jobs seem to be pretty frequent and some of them are hugely challenging to meet. If we have to work over a weekend/evening we do charge extra, and so do our installers so someone has to eat that cost.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I don't mind rush jobs for regular customers. I hate customers that only have rush jobs. Big difference between the two. I don't charge extra for normal people that need something fast and I don't discount when we take a long time to complete a job either. Give and take.
Don't forget to charge extra for the million times they call to see if their stuff is ready. So sorry to bother you again... I don't mean to be a pain....
.

 

[Gino]

Kinda like already said, ya hafta play it by ear. Once in a while, we can usually gang it in with something else, but if it's continually abused, it will be charged extra. Just have a chat up front and give them a choice. I like that about we can do it as fast as you can afford. Puts the ball in their court..... in a light way.

 

[Jeremiah]

I just tell the customer the honest truth, in a way I would hope they understand. From october 1st to march 31st we are on a 12 hour a day production schedule. Every order is done in the order it was approved for production. If you want overtime production we can do that at the overtime rate. This way it is fair to all customers ! I have 1 customer that has been on my desk for final approval for 2 weeks now. We called him 3 times so far. Now his job just waits to be put into production.

 

[FireSprint.com]

Hurry up and wait!

 

[visual800]

this topic came up on the facebook page. No I dont charge more for rush jobs because I dont take them. If you contact me and need it ASAP or specify its a rush job I will quote you and tell you an approximate date and even though Im not going to rush it I want 100% up front if that does not suffice you you can go to the next guy. Too many times early in the biz I have taken rush jobs not only for the money but just to be the hero in your life. What Ive learned from this IS...once I accept this rush job and try to rush it everything goes wrong and its all on me. Its stressful, it causes working after afters and it certainly in most cases does not mean I have won your loyalty. So I just stopped doing rushes. It seems almost everyone is in a hurry these days and is looking for someone else to throw that monkey off their back onto another. Maybe its my age I dont know but I can tell you this in all the times in the past that damn check didnt get in a rush to be sent!

 

[Jester1167]

Gotta love the rush jobs that set in the shop for days and you have to hound to get them to pick it up.

 

[CanuckSigns]

this topic came up on the facebook page. No I dont charge more for rush jobs because I dont take them. If you contact me and need it ASAP or specify its a rush job I will quote you and tell you an approximate date and even though Im not going to rush it I want 100% up front if that does not suffice you you can go to the next guy. Too many times early in the biz I have taken rush jobs not only for the money but just to be the hero in your life. What Ive learned from this IS...once I accept this rush job and try to rush it everything goes wrong and its all on me. Its stressful, it causes working after afters and it certainly in most cases does not mean I have won your loyalty. So I just stopped doing rushes. It seems almost everyone is in a hurry these days and is looking for someone else to throw that monkey off their back onto another. Maybe its my age I dont know but I can tell you this in all the times in the past that damn check didnt get in a rush to be sent!

Clients who want us to rush to meet their deadline but then sit on the invoice for 2 months are a huge pet peeve of mine! Going through this now with a client, rushed a project and installed it within their off hours schedule, billed them 5 weeks ago, still no cheque, turns out the guy ordering doesn't do it very often and didn't know the proper procedure to get a invoice paid, he submitted my quote, not my invoice!

 

[Michael Colella]

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[GaSouthpaw]

I've always been a fan of rush fees. It weeds out who really needs something and who doesn't. Decades ago, in different industry, the owner of the company I worked fir had a "rush fee is 20% or $100 minimum, whichever is more" policy. No customer was exempt (even the paper mills that ordered $75K a month from us).

As far as hurry, hurry, hurry... and then it sits? Yeah- major ass pain. That's why the same guy had a policy that the bill was sent as soon as the order was ready. For rush jobs, it was pay up front.

 

[ColorCrest]

I am wondering what everyone's philosophy is when/if they charge rush fees?

It’s long been a practice to offer customers options in the same way FedEx does. Sort of a “fast, faster, fastest” level of service. Sometimes there are more options and sometimes maybe off-menu such as “economy” and “expedite.” Define as needed.

One of the early questions to a customer is “When do you need this?” while making them aware of options. Everybody understands the palatable FedEx model.

In the world of manufacturing sometimes only particular stages of production require a different price / service tier. Design, print, fab, installation can be charged according to separate schedules. Service schedule attributes are required by good quoting software for their calculations as well.

 

[WYLDGFI]

We charge for rush here....having to move jobs around or pull a white rabbit out of somewhere that doesn't lend itself to being a source of cleanliness...lol. We try to not have to charge rush, but some clients of ours are understanding about the charges and have already built into the retail pricing they are quoting to their clients.

 

[Andy D]

I try to give myself more time than required on all of my jobs so that I can fit in rush work if needed.
Yeah charge them, but keep in mind if you let customers dictate your shop hours by taking a dump in the middle of your shop too often, & your employees are missing their kids games or date night with the spouse, you will end up losing good employees.

 

[Texas_Signmaker]

I priced a 4x8 banner this morning for $168 delivered on Friday, or $241 delivered tomorrow. They went for the rush and I made a few extra bucks. Customer is super happy.

 

[visual800]

Things that made me realize over time that rushes were BS please. I bet this has happened to several of you before. Customer calls , freaking out, need a banner in 3 days printed and installed, says they already have art set up....takes them 2 weeks to send art lol. Customer calls freaking out wants some small temp signs printed installed but wont send you full payment before placing order. customer calls freaking out, blah blah blah and doesnt get item after you have completed it, wont answer calls or emails to pick items up. thats why after years on this crap you finally say NO!